In this photo taken in the Florida Straits on May 18, 2015, members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Charles David Jr, left, watch Cuban migrants that were intercepted at sea. The migrants are given a white jumper, a mat, pillows and blankets and are housed on the deck of the cutter. U.S. authorities have captured or intercepted more than 2,500 Cuban migrants attempting the risky sea crossing from Cuba to the U.S. since Oct. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Tony Winton) less

In this photo taken in the Florida Straits on May 18, 2015, members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Charles David Jr, left, watch Cuban migrants that were intercepted at sea. The migrants are given a white ... more

Photo: Tony Winton, Associated Press

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In this photo taken in the Florida Straits on May 17, 2015, members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Charles David Jr, foreground, leaving the USCG cutter Mohawk with six Cuban migrants. U.S. authorities have captured or intercepted more than 2,500 Cuban migrants attempting the risky sea crossing from Cuba to the U.S. since Oct. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Tony Winton) less

In this photo taken in the Florida Straits on May 17, 2015, members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Charles David Jr, foreground, leaving the USCG cutter Mohawk with six Cuban migrants. U.S. authorities have ... more

Photo: Tony Winton, Associated Press

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A Cuban refugee (left) talks to U.S. Coast Guard Fireman Eddie Toledano aboard the cutter Charles David Jr. Refugees often are transferred between cutters before they return to Cuba.

A Cuban refugee (left) talks to U.S. Coast Guard Fireman Eddie Toledano aboard the cutter Charles David Jr. Refugees often are transferred between cutters before they return to Cuba.

Photo: Tony Winton, Associated Press

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Coast Guard, Cuban refugees continue deadly hide-and-seek

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ABOVE THE FLORIDA STRAITS — With a shift in the relationship between Havana and Washington, many Cubans are now attempting a risky sea crossing out of fear that the U.S. will change its “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy allowing any Cuban reaching U.S. land to stay and pursue citizenship.

Without it, they’d be treated like other foreigners caught illegally in the country — ineligible for citizenship and subject to deportation.

The U.S. Coast Guard returns any Cuban refugees caught at sea to the communist island. Authorities have captured or intercepted more than 2,600 since Oct. 1, and that tally is expected to match or surpass last year’s total of nearly 4,000.

“It’s fair to say that this is the Wild West of the Coast Guard,” said Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma, spokesman for the Coast Guard’s Miami-based Seventh District, which patrols the Florida Straits. “We’ve got drugs, we’ve got migrants and we’ve got search and rescue, and we’ve got an enormous area, approximately the size of the continental United States.”

The steady hum of a Coast Guard aircraft flying low loops over these swift, dark blue waters broadcasts a distinct message to refugees: Nothing has changed.

The Coast Guard planes are equipped with sensors that pick out shapes on the water’s surface miles away. From a patrol altitude of about 1,500 feet, cruise ships look like smudges on the horizon and sailboats are white dots with long wakes.

A refugee vessel appears the size of a buoy. Pilots look for something suspicious: waves that don’t break quite right, a dark speck in a cloud’s shadow, the glint of something tossed overboard, or the ripple of a blue tarp.

“I’ve seen two guys on a Styrofoam sheet with two backpacks,” Lt. Luke Zitzman said from the cockpit of a recent patrol.

Coast Guard crews will open their cargo doors to toss buckets containing water and food, sometimes their own lunches, down to refugees frantically signaling for help.

They’ve also watched immigrants push away life jackets and inflatable rafts thrown down to keep them afloat in deep waters before a Coast Guard cutter arrives. If they can see a shoreline, many migrants will try to swim for it.

Once picked up by the Coast Guard, refugees find themselves transferred from cutter to cutter before they return to Cuba.

Aboard the cutter Charles David Jr., crew members sometimes recognize faces among the roughly 900 immigrants who have crossed the decks since 2013. A family with a 4-year-old girl has shown up twice, and other refugees have confessed to getting caught half a dozen times or more.

Although Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Beaudoin calls the immigrants his guests, some can’t be pacified. Past guests have lashed out at the crew, refused food and water, or tried to hurt themselves, hoping to win a transfer to Florida. (That rarely works.)

“They’re humans. They’re trying to make a better life for themselves. They’re not just trying to come to the U.S. to freeload. We’ve had some that have been on board six, seven times, and there’s definitely desperation there,” said Boatswain 2nd Class Matthew Karas, watching over the refugees.